Sure didn't make me feel very competent as a turkey hunter to see those guys bag nothing less than a double on the first trip to the woods with no practice and terrible tactics.

Let me set it up for you. They decide they need turkeys for their cook off. So Jase and Uncle Si, 2 of the main characters open a box of turkey decoys and calls and head to the woods to turkey hunt.

First issue, they have a full strut and a jake decoy, no hen.

They then play the calls like banjoes, making all kinds of racket. Si even does a dance with a couple of the fans for the decoy in the turkey woods. But worst of all, they hear gobbles to all of this. Not sure if it was a set up with tame turkeys, Lord I hope so. But if not, I've got revisit my own strategies. They have 2 hot strutters come in and one breeds the jake decoy. The guys line them up and successfully harvest the 2 birds, this after all the shenanigans they were up to. Now, I know you can edit like crazy, so I do hope they did truly harvest the birds and then cut in all the other stuff for interesting TV. We all know real turkey hunting would be brutal TV except for the endings of successful hunts. I enjoy this show, but really was aghast last night watching crazy Si doing his dance and Jase disrespecting that box call so badly.

Anyway, see if you can find it and let me know if I'm alone in feeling a little embarrassed for not bagging a bird everytime out.

I love the show but here lately they have been getting a little cheesy and its getting obvious that its staged . I havent watched this episode yet, due to work, but I do have it recorded on my dvr. If its as bad as you say TJ then my guess is that its totally staged.

fallhunt wrote:I think that was staged.Those couldn't have been real wild turkeys

They had a similar show on the Gator Huntin' guys in LA for their Thanksgiving spectacular. Someone obviously let a tame tom out and they shot him. It was beyond ridiculous!! Makes the rest of us guys who truly hunt 'em look like fools with even botherin' with a sport so "easy" Probably brings a lot of those "greenhorns" to the woods that make it difficult for the rest of us. Makes ya' wonder how much of the gator killin' is rigged as well

"Chasin' gobblers has a lot in common with dealing with a wife, 'bout the time ya' think ya' got 'em figured out, they change the rules!!!"

After watching the episode I believe Im going to start doing the wild turkey mating dance that Uncle Si was doing. As you did see the dance works without any doubts. Now there was one flaw in his dance, if you want big mature gobblers you have to wear the hen head dress also. As you seen in the show if you dont have the headdress then all you will get are jakes.

I know what you all mean about the shows being kind of corny and perhaps somewhat staged, however; I think they are good for the hunting community as a whole. What they do for us on the positive side is give us positive press. For many many American households hunting was just something that a cruel hearted minority of society done. These shows demonstrate that it is a way of life throughout much of this country. That regular Americans participate and that indeed even those entrapped deep within cities can now relate to rural culture. Yes they may think us less, but if the issue of hunting ever comes to the ballot many of those who automatically would have voted to ban us will now think about it from a different light. They will consider that they know people who survive off this sport. They will think, "do I want to vote against willie, Phil, Jase and Ms Kay?". These shows put a human face on hunting to the masses. I think we all owe them a thank you.

I'd agree that it does indeed put a face to hunting. And, that any positive press is great.

But, here's the but, as a turkey hunter, I'm not sure I want people looking at that show as representative of what we love about the sport. Although we all agree that it was staged, absolutely had to be, I don't know that everyone out there would recognize that fact.

Don't get me wrong, I love the show and will continue to watch the show, Uncle Si is the best, but I do wish they had left the turkey hunting to someone else to portray. It's hard enough to try to explain why we don't get a bird everytime we're out when you see them from the roads all the time. Even had one farmer offer to go "hit one on the head with a shovel" for me. And when you have a show portray our sport this way, doesn't add much to our credibility as hunters and the difficulties we face when we try to harvest one of these magnificent birds.

eggshell wrote:I know what you all mean about the shows being kind of corny and perhaps somewhat staged, however; I think they are good for the hunting community as a whole. What they do for us on the positive side is give us positive press. For many many American households hunting was just something that a cruel hearted minority of society done. These shows demonstrate that it is a way of life throughout much of this country. That regular Americans participate and that indeed even those entrapped deep within cities can now relate to rural culture. Yes they may think us less, but if the issue of hunting ever comes to the ballot many of those who automatically would have voted to ban us will now think about it from a different light. They will consider that they know people who survive off this sport. They will think, "do I want to vote against willie, Phil, Jase and Ms Kay?". These shows put a human face on hunting to the masses. I think we all owe them a thank you.

Didn't look at it that way Thanks for the new perspective Good post!

"Chasin' gobblers has a lot in common with dealing with a wife, 'bout the time ya' think ya' got 'em figured out, they change the rules!!!"

i could really care less about how easy NON HUNTERS think turkey hunting is & should be if they watch the duck dynasty show you mention & i could care less if they say how can you not harvest a turkey i see em on roads & look how EZ they got turkeys on duck dynasty!!!???

it is our job as hunters to explain that TV show was not hunting & shooting turkeys off the road is illegal... i think they did that show knowing any real turkey hunter or hunter for that matter would read between the lines & know it was a staged hunt for the show... if nothing else gave it away it was SIs mate n dance did... lol

i do have probs with them boys on swamp people going out into the swamp & shooting them 2 tame turkeys the way they did & then try to push it off as a real hunt!!!??? i had 2-3 people say comments like you need to hunt down in LA them birds are dumb troy & his son got 2 EZ whats take n you so long... & man them turkeys are dumb if they let troy & his son shoot them that EZ

i seem to have more probs with the way the duck commander went into a school & ripped apart a wood-duck just to show the kids how to DRESS wild game i mean he was kinda gross even for me to watch... that may leave a bad taste in more non hunters mouths then a old VET SI doing a turkey dance & fake n a turkey hunt...???